An Englishman of forty years residence in Wales pontificates about politics (slightly off-message), films and trivia. Secretary of Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats. Candidate for Neath in the Westminster elections of 1997 & 2017 and the Welsh general election of 2016.

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

EU wonks duck critical electoral issues

At first sight, this assessment of The Reform of the
Electoral Law of the
European Union (in pdf form) should have been welcome. A rationalisation of the different voting systems for the European Parliament in the constituent nations is surely overdue and the EU has the power to impose it - that is, if the Parliament and the Council of Ministers can agree. At present, as I understand it, the only requirement is that the electoral method must be proportional.

However, the Reform is concerned too much about process and the representation of parties. It does not tackle the iniquity of party lists which put too much power in the hands of managers and reduce that of the people to prefer individual candidates.